(WN) Somalia's new President, Mohamed Abdullahi,
has been inaugurated in the capital Mogadishu, promising to restore dignity to
the troubled Horn of Africa nation but warning it will take another two decades
to "fix" the country.
"Multiple challenges are ahead of our
government. Therefore, I am telling people that because of the limited
resources we have, our achievements will be limited," said Mohamed, also
known as Farmajo, on Wednesday at the ceremony."For the past 26 years
there have been conflicts and droughts, so it will take other 20 years to fix
this country."
The dual US-Somali citizen and former prime
minister was sworn in at a ceremony held in the highly secured airport zone to
avoid an attack by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group, which has threatened a
"vicious war" against the new government.
All major roads and streets inside and
outside the capital were blocked and commercial flights were cancelled for
security reasons. Farmajo has already taken office following a handover
ceremony last week during which al-Shabab fighters fired mortar shells near the
presidential palace, killing two children at a nearby school.
In a sign of the challenges facing his
administration, a car bomb at a busy market killed 39 people on Sunday. His election was met with elation among
Somalis, who fondly remember his brief stint as prime minister in 2010-11 which
showed him to be a no-nonsense leader set on improving governance and cracking
down on corruption.
***Somalia in crisis***
Almost 1.4 million children suffering from
severe malnutrition could die this year as famine looms in Nigeria, Somalia and
Yemen, the UN children's agency said on Monday. The warning comes a day after
government officials and the United Nations declared famine in parts of South
Sudan.
Al Jazeera's Catherine Soi, reporting from
Mogadishu, said people expect the new president to address security threats and
how to deal with the UN's warning that a severe drought has placed large swaths
of the country at risk of famine."People are eager to know who is going
to be his Prime Minister and who is going to be in his cabinet. A president is
only as good is the people he surrounds himself with," she said.
"In the former government, there was a
lot of infighting so people are hoping that Farmajo is not going to make that
mistake and will select people who are in-lined with his vision and who will
help him move this country forward."
Somalia's limited election process, in which
only several thousand delegates voted for politicians, is seen as a step
towards full democracy for the country, which has not had an effective central
government since the collapse of Siad Barre's military regime in 1991, which
led to civil war and decades of anarchy.
African Union troops drove al-Shabab fighters
out of Mogadishu in August 2011 but the armed group continue to control rural
areas and launch repeated attacks in the capital. promising to restore dignity to the troubled
Horn of Africa nation but warning it will take another two decades to
"fix" the country.
0 Comments